Heaping seven nominations on both the con-artist melodrama “American Hustle” and the grimly historical “12 Years a Slave,” the Golden Globes nominations set up a showdown of contrasts: comedy and drama, light and dark, White and Black.

The two films were validated as Academy Awards front-runners in the Globes nominations announced Thursday in Beverly Hills, Calif., by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, refining what had been a scattered awards season in a year many consider encouragingly plentiful of worthy movies.

The differences between the two top-nominees are vast. While David O. Russell’s fictionalized caper “American Hustle” takes a playful, exaggerated approach to an already outlandish story (the FBI’s scandal-uncovering Abscam investigation in the disco 1970s), Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave,” based on Solomon Northup’s 1853 memoir, is unflinching in its portrait of Southern slavery — a subject Hollywood has seldom depicted rigorously or truthfully.

This image released by Fox Searchlight shows Chiwetel Ejiofor, center, in a scene from “12 Years A Slave.” The Golden Globes nominations will be announced on Thursday, Dec. 12. (AP Photo/Fox Searchlight, Jaap Buitendijk)

“I feel this film is pivotal and just good for the world,” said Lupita Nyong’o, who was nominated for best supporting actress. The other nominations for “12 Years a Slave” include best picture, drama; best actor for Chiwetel Ejiofor; best director for McQueen; and best supporting actor for Michael Fassbender.

“American Hustle,” though equally dramatic as it is comedic, is for Russell a closely felt story of self-renewal. Reteaming much of the casts from his last two acclaimed films (“Silver Linings Playbook” and “The Fighter”), the movie’s warm reception completes a personal redemption for the director.

“There is not a molecule in my body that isn’t humbly grateful,” said Russell. “From the second we made ‘The Fighter,’ it’s been a journey that began from a low point for me to a new period that I feel my life was leading up to.”

“American Hustle” received nominations for best picture, comedy; Russell for best director; Christian Bale for best actor, comedy; Amy Adams for best actress, comedy; and Jennifer Lawrence, last year’s Oscar darling, for best supporting actress.

The distinction drawn by the Globes between drama and comedy-musical, won’t be there for Oscar voters, who’ll have to weigh the differences of “12 Years a Slave” and “American Hustle” — that classic dichotomy of hard-to-watch and easy-on-the-eyes — against each other.

The field can’t be said to have narrowed too much, though. The innovative, 3-D space odyssey “Gravity,” which received four nominations Thursday including best dramatic film and best actress for Sandra Bullock, will surely be more of a heavyweight at the Academy Awards, which honor technical achievement categories that the Globes don’t.

The ’60s Greenwich Village folk tale “Inside Llewyn Davis” (three nods) and the soulful, futuristic romance “Her” (three nominations) have each won best film from other groups. Support is also strong for Alexander Payne’s father-son road trip “Nebraska” (five nominations), the Somali pirate thriller “Captain Phillips” (four nods), and Martin Scorsese’s wild high-finance party “The Wolf of Wall Street” (two noms). All five were nominated for best picture.